Mesoscale Eddies Drive Increased Silica Export in the Subtropical Pacific Ocean

doi:10.1126/science.1136221

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Science 18 May 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5827, pp. 1017 - 1021
DOI: 10.1126/science.1136221

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Mesoscale Eddies Drive Increased Silica Export in the Subtropical Pacific Ocean

Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson,¹^* Robert R. Bidigare,² Tommy D. Dickey,³ Michael R. Landry,⁴ Carrie L. Leonard,⁵ Susan L. Brown,² Francesco Nencioli,³ Yoshimi M. Rii,² Kanchan Maiti,¹ Jamie W. Becker,⁶ Thomas S. Bibby,⁷^,8 Wil Black,³ Wei-Jun Cai,⁹ Craig A. Carlson,¹⁰ Feizhou Chen,⁹ Victor S. Kuwahara,³^,11 Claire Mahaffey,² Patricia M. McAndrew,² Paul D. Quay,¹² Michael S. Rappé,⁶ Karen E. Selph,² Melinda P. Simmons,⁴^,13 Eun Jin Yang⁴^,14

Mesoscale eddies may play a critical role in ocean biogeochemistryby increasing nutrient supply, primary production, and efficiencyof the biological pump, that is, the ratio of carbon exportto primary production in otherwise nutrient-deficient waters.We examined a diatom bloom within a cold-core cyclonic eddyoff Hawai`i. Eddy primary production, community biomass, andsize composition were markedly enhanced but had little effecton the carbon export ratio. Instead, the system functioned asa selective silica pump. Strong trophic coupling and inefficientorganic export may be general characteristics of community perturbationresponses in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

¹ Department of Geological Sciences and Marine Science Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
² Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai`i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
³ Ocean Physics Laboratory, University of California at Santa Barbara, Goleta, CA 93117, USA.
⁴ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093–0227, USA.
⁵ BAE Systems, S2 Identification and Surveillance, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
⁶ Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai`i, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA.
⁷ National Oceanography Center, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
⁸ Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
⁹ Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602–3636, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106–9610, USA.
¹¹ Faculty of Education, Soka University, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan.
¹² School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195–5351, USA.
¹³ Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, San Francisco, CA 94129–0910, USA.
¹⁴ Marine Environment Research Department, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Seoul 425-600, South Korea.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cbnelson{at}geol.sc.edu

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PERSPECTIVES OCEAN SCIENCE: Highly Active Eddies: Anthony F. Michaels (18 May 2007)
Science 316 (5827), 992. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1140059]
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